THE SIKH TEMPLE SHOOTER’S BAND: END APATHY. “The Southern Poverty Law Center put out the early characterization of End Apathy as a ‘racist white power’ band, but I’m not sure how they know that.”
Related: The 6 Sikh temple shooting victims identified; Satwant Singh Kaleka died trying to fight off shooter. Heroic. But it’s too bad he didn’t have a gun.
BEACH READING: Now reading John Ringo’s Queen of Wands, right after Charlie Stross’s The Apocalypse Codex. Some surprising similarities, and some big differences. Although both books are good, I prefer Ringo’s worldview to Stross’s.
HAPPINESS: Is the USA moving toward a ‘happiness index’? It’ll be a convenient distraction from how much poorer we’ve gotten. There — see how much happier you are without all that nasty old money you used to have? Or am I too cynical?
TOM BLUMER ON THE NEW OBAMA ECONOMY: Shedding full-time jobs, three years after the recession supposedly ended.
NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Artificial evolution of enzymes to make novel semiconductors.
IN THE MAIL: Digital Rapture: The Singularity Anthology.
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Australian Defense Minister Reinforces U.S. Alliance.
The rapid changes underway in Asia present the U.S. with a far more complex geostrategic challenge than that posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. America’s new Asia policy will require the deployment of the full arsenal of American power—not just economic and strategic but cultural and diplomatic as well.
To this end, the U.S. needs to pay more attention to the internal debates in countries throughout Asia-Pacific. In Australia, for instance, while support for America at both the political and the individual level remains steadfast, there are rumblings within certain sections of the foreign policy community that a rising China should force Canberra to re-evaluate its strategic priorities.
Which is why Washington should take heart from recent comments made by Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith.
All this means is that we haven’t blown it . . . yet.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser who was President Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, accepted a $100,000 speaking fee in 2010 from an affiliate of a company doing business with Iran’s government.
Plus: “No, the bigger story out of the Plouffe speeches is that President Obama, who campaigned so passionately against what he called the ‘revolving door’ between the highest levels of government and the lobbying/influence business, has absolutely no problem with it when his friends do it.”
POINTS AND FIGURES: The Ticking Time Bomb.
WHO NEEDS LEGISLATION? The Hill: After defeat of Senate cybersecurity bill, Obama weighs executive-order option.
BARACK OBAMA, HISTORY-MAKING PRESIDENT: The Obama recovery isn’t worse than just the Reagan recovery, but also worse than the Teddy Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland recoveries.
He doesn’t look like those other Presidents on the dollar bills, and he doesn’t perform like them, either.
BECAUSE THEY’RE SO COMPASSIONATE: Anti-hunting mob urges Team USA shooter Corey Cogdell to shoot herself, advocates violence against family. These people aren’t so much pro-animal as anti-human.
HOW’S THAT STRICT NEW JERSEY GUN CONTROL WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? The most dangerous town in America: Inside Camden, New Jersey where 39 people have been murdered this year.
GALLERY: First Rover Photos From Mars.
AT AMAZON, markdowns on shoes and boots. For men, women, and children.
THE HILL: Rising gas prices return to haunt Obama.
Gas prices have surged in recent weeks and analysts predict they’ll keep rising, creating fresh openings for GOP attacks against President Obama that had waned when prices dropped sharply.
The nationwide average for regular gasoline is $3.60-per-gallon, a 24-cent rise over the past four weeks, according to AAA.
Prices are well below the peak of nearly $4 in early April, a run-up that fueled constant GOP criticism of White House energy policies and threw Obama on the defensive. The frequency of political clashes over gas prices have tapered off since prices tumbled. But several analysts told The Hill that costs at the pump are likely to continue their recent rise through August.
I’ve noticed the increase myself.
SCIENCE: Men and women apologize differently.
TECHCRUNCH: Chick-Fil-A Is Actually Popular: How Social Media Distorts Your View of The World. “Despite an inescapable torrent of opposition from popular tech blogs, Twitter users, and city mayors against Chick-fil-A, the self-avowed anti-gay marriage restaurant enjoyed record-breaking sales. . .. Had I just gazed the world through my Twitter feed, I would think Chick-fil-A was on the verge of bankruptcy. . . and also that Ron Paul was president, gay marriage was legal, and President Obama didn’t have a decent chance of losing the election.”
It depends on how diverse your friends/followers are.
THE CAUSE OF INDIA’S BLACKOUT: Power Theft.
OBAMA: ARE AMERICAN JEWS FEELING “BUYER’S REMORSE?” “They certainly should be.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Families Make Big Changes To Pay For College.
“I think I’ve maybe mortgaged my future in ways that I couldn’t have imagined when I went back to school.”
She has no savings, no money put away for retirement and is thinking of taking on a second job to pay off her kids’ loans.
And she even has a little bit to pay off in student loans from her first degree — from 1996.
Despite her family’s growing student loan debt, O’Brien still believes in the value of a college education. She says it was her first degree — in French and international studies — that taught her how to think critically. And she wants the same for her kids.
Hmm. Did it?
A little inexpensive reading material could prevent this.
CHANGE: Beijing Steps up Persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang. “The mostly Muslim Uighur population of China’s far-western province of Xinjiang has never had it particularly easy when it comes to practicing its faith. Under Mao Zedong, when religion was essentially forbidden throughout China, the state would go to extremes to suppress Islam—like force-feeding candy to Muslim school children to make them break their Ramadan fasts. The bad old days of repression may now be coming back strong. Concerned about ethnic ‘splittism,’ Beijing is increasingly resorting to tactics—some new, some old—to make it difficult for Uighurs to live out their faith . . . This is not a sign that China knows what it’s doing in Xinjiang.”
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